Jund Modern: Where do I go with it?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 31, 2013, 10:57 a.m. by Trollhoffer
Hey all.
I've recently been considering going Jund after some pretty sweet pulls from boosters, but I don't really know how I want to pull this off. I've done three colours before, but putting together a Jund deck is a bit intimidating as the colour combination does so many things.
So what I'm going to do here is put down a small list of cards I've pulled and like that fit into the colours, with some short commentary on what I might want to achieve with them.
Savageborn Hydra -- A pretty obvious beater. Its X cost and counter pump are making me consider going down a mana ramp path.
Corpsejack Menace -- Double duty out of counters. Nice. Syngergises with the above hydra really well, and both would synergise with mana ramp.
Lotleth Troll -- Synergises with Gravecrawler (which I currently have none of, though) and Corpsejack Menace. Difficult to remove, tramples, and pumps for essentially no cost if I find out how to turn my graveyard into an efficient resource.
Vastwood Hydra -- Again, Corpsejack Menace gets double duty out of this guy. As far as I can read the rules, the dispersed counters when this hydra dies would also be doubled, making this an incredible creature to sacrifice in order to bolster an offense.
Pyrewild Shaman -- I like its repeatable bloodrush ability. It's also a potential sacrifice target, since I can just reclaim it.
Scavenging Ooze -- Pulled this in an M14 pack and initially had no idea how good it is. Might stick it in the sideboard, since the above cards encourage me to reuse my graveyard multiple times. Good for getting stuff out of graveyards that aren't meant to be recycled, but probably better in my case for hating on other graveyards.
Rubblehulk -- Another card that wants me to mana ramp, although in this case by specifically adding more lands to my board.
So there's a lot of stuff I can do with this, but never before has the 60 card efficiency limit seemed so strict. It seems that the above cards are asking me to do these things:
-- As noted, mana ramp. X costs and land referencing, etc. -- Graveyard access. Between Lotleth Troll and Pyrewild Shaman , there's already a mini combo going on. Could be good early, but Pyrewild's 3 mana retrieval cost could be steep if I'm also trying to accomplish other things.
It's also worth noting that I have two Jarad's Orders at my disposal, which makes me want to access the graveyard that much more. What I need to find, though, is an efficient balance between getting my mana up and making my graveyard into an accessible resource.
Any tips?
What do you want the deck to do?
In modern, Jund the archtype is normally a good stuff deck which gains lots of card advantage of Dark Confidant , disrupts the other deck with discard and removal, then beats face with efficient and undercosted creatures like Tarmogoyf .
If you want something in jund colours though, I am happy to help you brew something. Just let me know what you want the deck to do and I'll show you decks like it for ideas or help you brew.
August 31, 2013 12:42 p.m.
Trollhoffer says... #4
Cheers for the reference. Seems quite creature-light, though. I was under the general assumption that Jund beat face a little more vigorously.
Right now, I'm thinking of focusing on these mechanics:
-- Mana ramp, specifically by adding lands to my board.
-- Bloodrush as a pump source that contributes to the graveyard.
-- A very slight amount of infect, but only as a surprise win-con that can come out of nowhere and beat down via stuff like Bloodrush and Savageborn Hydra 's double-strike.
August 31, 2013 8:28 p.m.
Trollhoffer you don't want to split your win con with infect.
It sounds like you just want Jund Aggro. Have you considered that? Less ramping, more value dudes?
September 1, 2013 6:40 a.m.
Trollhoffer says... #6
I was thinking the infect could be limited to just Triumph of the Hordes as a surprise win-con, which also has the benefit of giving everything trample. You could also read the card as "Creatures you control gain wither until end of turn. If you deal 10 combat damage to an opponent this combat phase, that opponent loses the game".
As for aggro, I want to do something a tad different, since I already run a lot of aggro decks and the colour combination provides lots of interesting mechanical opportunities. While I still want the deck to be pressuring, there's plenty of control opportunities in black, burn opportunities in red, ramp opportunities in green, etc. That said, it might be worth going down a Golgari path and splashing red for stuff like Savageborn Hydra , Rubblehulk and other fatties.
Would you consider a toolbox approach with a lot of split cards to be worthwhile? The biggest challenge I'm facing right now is deciding what to actually include mechanically within the colour combination. Split cards aren't mana-efficient, but if I go with the mana ramp path, I should have the mana I need to get their flexibility without being at a tempo disadvantage.
September 1, 2013 8:17 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #7
I'm really pretty positive that this style deck may fit the standard meta better. What you're probably looking for in conjunction with corpsejack and loltroll is a Varolz, the Scar-Striped . Sac a creature to the loltroll, it gets double counters, scavenge it onto varolz, he gets double counters too. You may also consider a Deadbridge Chant or two and a few Deathrite Shaman and Grisly Salvage and Mulch to tie things together.
September 1, 2013 10:17 a.m.
For aggro, you don't really want anything costing more than 4 mana, if that. Most aggro decks are on a 1-3 mana curve actually and in modern, bar some out there or specific ramp decks, you don't want anything that costs more than 4 mana.
For a pressuring controlling style aggro deck, that is called Midrange and you then want cards like Phyrexian Arena and value to maintain pressure, removal and card advantage, while using efficient creatures to beat face.
bman5604 says... #2
Build a deck we will help you tweak it from there but you can use this as a reference
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=5538&d=232056
August 31, 2013 12:39 p.m.